Commodus, AE sestertius, 31-34 mm, 21.50 g., 6 h. Obv.: L AELIVS AVRELIVS COMMODVS AVG PIVS FELIX, head of Commodus with short beard wearing lion-skin turned left. rev.: HER-CVLI / ROM-ANO / AVG-VST divided by upright club, all in laurel-wreath. Provenance: Claude Silberstein, Paris, c. 1977. First question: is it authentic? Some experts have raised doubts, but they had only seen a bad photograph on the net. On the other hand, Silberstein is a good provenance; the coin honestly looks authentic and when an expert like the late Jean-Baptiste Giard had it in hand, he thought it was authentic too. In the late 1970s, with its head turned left and the absence of SC on reverse, it was unparalleled. In 1995 a bimetallic medallion with the same types, but larger (42 mm), was published in the Athens Annals of Archaeology XXII. In 2008 a similar sestertius, probably from the same pair of dies, but with SC added on reverse, was auctioned by Gorny & Mosch 169.314. Bimetallic medallion found in the excavations of Kastelli Kissamou (Greece). AE bimetallic 42 mm, thick. 5 mm, 69.66 g. Jenkins Michael R., Notes on a Medallion of Commodus Found at Kastelli Kissamou, Athens Annals of Archaeology XXII 1989 (1995) p. 139-142 - Photo of the obverse now in the Numismatic Museum, Athens. Gorny & Mosch auction 169 (12/10/2008) 314. AE 21.86 g. The fact that the coin was acquired before these parallels were known may be taken as a confirmation of authenticity. This is why I think it is authentic. Under Commodus, probably in 192, a complete set of coins and medallions was issued, claiming the emperor Commodus was the "Roman Hercules". All had on obverse the head of Hercules-Commodus wearing lion-skin turned right, and on reverse the legend HERCVLI / ROMANO / AVGVSTO (diversely abbreviated) in three lines divided by an upright club, surrounded by a laurel-wreath. This set of coins was composed of: Aureus: RIC III Commodus 251 (aureus)) Denarius: RIC III Commodus 250, 251 (denarius), 252 Sestertius: RIC III Commodus 637, 638 As: RIC III Commodus 644 Bimetallic AE medallion A: Gnecchi p. 54 Nr. 28, Pl. 79 Nr. 10 = Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Münzkabinett RÖ 32175 (head right on obverse) Bimetallic AE medallion B: Jenkins 1995 p.139 Fig.1 (head left on obverse). Bimetallic medallion A. AE bimetallic 42.5 mm, 61.29 g. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Münzkabinett RÖ 32175. The sestertius with head turned left seems to be the missing link between the medallions and the sestertii. It has the size, the weight, the aspect of a sestertius (it is not carefully struck well-centered on a circular regular flan like a medallion), thus it is a mere sestertius. The lack of SC on the reverse of my specimen means nothing, it happens more than once on Roman imperial sestertii (see Toynbee Jocelyn M.C., Roman Medallions, Numismatic Studies 5 (1944) chapter III). The Gorny & Mosch specimen seems struck from the same pair of dies as mine, but has S C. It is likely that this S C was added as a correction after some coins had been already struck. This sestertius is different from the more frequent ones (RIC III Commodus 637-8) because the legend is less abbreviated, the obv. portrait is turned left and in higher relief. The style of this portrait is closer to the medallion style than to the sestertius style. Commodus is probably the 2nd c. emperor who issued the more medallions. Among those, there is what Jocelyn Toynbee called a "Hercules-Commodus group" with Commodus' portrait wearing lion-skin. This group is composed of 10 different medallions (9 listed by Toynbee plus 1 published later by Jenkins). Four in this group have the reverse legend Herculi Romano Augusto (diversely abbreviated) with two kinds of reverse types: two with bow, club and quiver (Gnecchi pl.79.9 and 80.1) and two with upright club dividing the inscription lines (Gnecchi pl. 79.10 and Jenkins 1995 p.139 fig.1). It is interesting to note that this Herculi Romano Augusto sub-group is linked with more ordinary coins: there are denarii and sestertii with the bow, club and quiver reverse, but it is the upright club reverse which makes the most extended set with 5 denominations : aureus, denarius, sestertius, as and medallion. The medallion was minted in two versions with the head of Commodus turned right or turned left. It appears that the same was done with the sestertii. Sestertii with Hercules-Commodus turned left were probably intended to be a limited edition (only 2 specimens known, from probably the same pair of dies), with an obverse die which was a miniature reproduction of the medallions. The two versions of the sestertius : the head turned right version (RIC III Commodus 637) and the head turned left (Gorny & Mosch specimen, more beautiful than mine and with corrected reverse legend)
Nice and interesting write up ! This type reminds me of the old joke (maybe ?) with the reverse : https://www.cointalk.com/threads/is-this-a-roman-joke-or-what.340566/
Some day somebody will surely find a specimen cut in half... to make obvious the significant half of the coin .
